I do not really think he can take your capital in one turn with your walls at above 100 DS, but I guess I could be surprised, having never really gone up against massed battleships before. I agree that trying to hurt you is the best play though since I am mostly pillaged-out but my cities are under the aegis of your fleet. Most likely this also means landing a bunch of Cossacks on your shores...I wonder if you should start moving the field cannon + GG south towards Demotic in case they do that...
|
[SPOILERS] Woden and ljubljana like boats
|
|
Turn 192-Vikings start
I ended up a few short on Combined Arms. I wish Firaxis would give you what is researched into a tech. I knew it would be close but it wasn't close enough. I probably could have made it if I had switched my citizens to campus buildings a turn earlier. Here is what I see. At Australia... Roland did a number on my pillaging ironclad with the city and 2 caravel strikes and Russia hit my P&S by TMMLP. No other ships to be seen. I think Russia is playing it smart here and waiting until he see your boats, Probably thinking the 2 or 3 ironclads he sees are a trap, otherwise whey wouldn't he move up. He should be getting good odds because I am not running the OL card or War of Religion. Over by our core... My ironclad died but Russia does seem to be going south, heading towards Abugida. He has an ironclad (probably at last one more by Buyniy) and a caravel in range of my ships but a bunch of battleships are by Abugida. I think I am safe keeping my ships where they are or at least backing up behind Runic. I need to be in range of you shores to upgrade next turn. Russia did pillage 2 of my coal mines. My suggestion for a plan is to wait on Rodeo a couple of turns. Without WoR and OL cards, my ships aren't quite the tanks they could be and now with the lack of coal (at 24 of 34 needed but only have a -3 penalty this turn). I am thinking of having the ironclad by the northern island pillage one of the pastures at He Was My Brother. I will switch civics to Mobilization and get 2 pillages this turn, that should make the policy swap around 400-500 gold. If you send me all your gold on your turn, I will upgrade next turn and buy a policy swap. Then we can move forward at Australia. Russia is currently at 2 coal, was at 7 last turn. He will be out of coal on his coming turn and Australia has no coal, so no worry about an upgrade. I can/will take Illmatic this turn. It will give Russia a campus pillage but now that he has battleships, it is not as important. He also has not hooked u his oil yet but there is a builder at Borodino. He will probably have it hooked up in 2 turns.
January 1st, 2022, 14:55
(This post was last modified: January 1st, 2022, 15:05 by ljubljana.)
Did Australia discover the tech yet? They should be 5 techs behind me if they don’t have SP, 4 techs behind if they have it. Also, where did that extra caravel that hit your IC come from? If the answer is “from inside The College Dropout, which is now empty”, that could be a reason to move up assertively. I am worried about more delays if they have the tech as this is the last turn Russia can send them coal for a while, so I suspect there is a deal waiting for roland right now with a 2 coal gift. But point taken about your IC gaining 11 CS back next turn, not sure what the best move is.
Looks like Russia retook Abjad, and will kill Abugida next turn. Fine by me, that city is beyond terrible at this point. Too bad williams is smart and did not leave me a path to save the frigate fleet. edit: It seems from a cursory glance like you are also getting +4 gold on TRs to me. Does that seem true on your end? We may want to report in the tech thread that we are both getting it if so... edit2: Where did Russia get another thousand gold from this turn without pillaging me? Wow, there is just no stopping their gold economy apprently...
Australia is at 35 techs, you are at 38, so no telling if he has Steam Power. I do know he has Ballistics, so that is a couple of techs you don't have. The caravel is The College Drop out is still there, so it is possible it was lurking off the coast or it is a fresh one, built on his turn.
No extra gold from your trade routes. Russian gold comes from my 2 coal mines and the lighthouse at Svetlana (Oracle Bones). Looks like he also hit the IZ at Fort Lakton. I can hit the privateer that pillaged the lighthouse but can't kill it. He could pillage the lighthouse next turn if he doesn't care about it since privateers ignore ZOC. I can get Mobilization down to 5 turns next turn. This turn, Totalitarianism is at 10 turns and a policy swap costs 610. Not sure if there is a base cost (I know I have seen it as low as between 100-200 gold), so it could cost as low as 300 gold next turn. I think waiting a turn or 2 is best. Even if Australia gets an ironclad, we need to control the seas first. If we control the seas, we can take a little longer taking cities. 
One thing I just noticed, He Was My Brother doesn't have walls and you sword is headed in that direction. Might be worth sailing some of your fleet north to take out the health and maybe your sword can take the city. It does have a campus.
Edit: You can't hit it this turn since my boats are on the 2 tiles you can hit it from but you can get into range and I can have my remining 2 ironclads set up off the small nub of land just south of the city to block any boats. A delay in moving forward also lets me get the ironclad that will take Illmatic into action and I will probably upgrade him next turn so we have at 1 unit that has vision on privateers.
January 1st, 2022, 15:48
(This post was last modified: January 1st, 2022, 15:53 by ljubljana.)
If they are missing just 3 techs that I have, I think Steam Power should be finished already...
 Screenie from when I was still researching Industrial. Sanitation, Mass Production, Astronomy, and Economics are all not needed for Steam Power, so roland should be missing all of them + Industrial if they started going for SP as soon as they finished Ballistics. That is -5 techs, and they also have +2 techs from Rifling + Ballistics, so if they went for SP ASAP, being at -3 techs indicates that Steam Power is done. So I am not sure what they are doing...either they have it and have not upgraded an IC fleet for some reason, or they took a suboptimal tech path? I am bit confused, to be honest, as it is definitely worth it for williams to fund an IC upgrade... Agreed that we have to control the seas before we can take the other Australia cities, but unfortunately the amount of control we have now here is probably fleeting. In just a few turns, Russia will start hooking up their oil and upgrading subs here and we will most likely have to retreat. If that's the case, our window to hit Rodeo could be very narrow indeed, and with the decreased defense strength from the injured caravel it is looking more likely that I can finish the walls off this turn. edit: As for He Was My Brother, it would be hilarious and possibly a morale blow for them if I took the city with an injured sword, and wow would I ever love to do so. But I am not sure it helps us that much as extra cities for me are pretty irrelevant to to the game's outcome at this point, and similarly taking away a city from Australia does not meaningfully hurt Russia. If we had to pick between that and you getting Rodeo, I'd pick Rodeo for sure. Hopefully there will be a way to get both, but I think we should prioritize more cities for you where possible rather than boosting me up.
You can take He Was My Brother while we wait. Sail into reach of having 2 frigates bombard it on your turn. Next turn hit it with 2 frigates and land your sword. You should be able to remove most of its health with just 2 shots. It is only at 52 DS. We will need to take it eventually and increasing your position is still good, especially since I am getting diminishing returns on capturing more cities due to amenities.
You just need to sail 2 frigates up there. My ironclads will provide security.
January 1st, 2022, 16:05
(This post was last modified: January 1st, 2022, 16:08 by ljubljana.)
Whenever we do go for Rodeo, I am thinking of doing a map something like this:
 Thoughts? This only works if we can get the walls down on the first turn of action, which I think is decently likely if we went for it this turn since the city defense strength has dropped to 70 from 76. It would be almost certain next turn if they don't upgrade an IC, as I will get in one more Dreadnought shot. But it will be impossible if they do upgrade an IC... |